Democracy

Opportunity

How
Anti-Growth Sentiment, Reflected in Zoning Laws, Thwarts Equality (The
New York Times)A growing body of economic literature suggests that
anti-growth sentiment, when multiplied across countless unheralded local
development battles, is a major factor in creating a stagnant and less equal
American economy. It has even to some extent changed how Americans of different
incomes view opportunity.

Engagement

Why
political participation falls short, and how to fix it (Ford
Foundation)Every election cycle, there’s a lot of talk about how to
increase U.S. voter turnout. A new report looks beyond that familiar question
and explains what it will take to make participation meaningful—and have a
true, lasting impact.

K-12 Education

Five
Ways to Increase Teacher Agency in Professional Development (Edutopia)For many educators, "professional development has long
been an empty exercise in compliance," according to a recent white paper
from Learning Forward and the National Commission on Teaching and America's
Future (NCTAF). The recommended change: greater attention to teacher agency.

Interest
in Teaching Continues to Drop Among High School Students
(EdWeek)An ACT survey of high school graduates who took its
college-entrance exam shows that in the class of 2015, only 4 percent said they
planned to become teachers, counselors, or administrators. In 2014, 5 percent
said they had such plans, and in 2010, 7 percent did. Twenty years ago, 9
percent of high school students who took the ACT said they were planning
education careers.

Higher
Education

Op-ed:
College Kids, With Kids (The New York Times)Jamie Merisotis and Anne-Marie Slaughter write: "Hillary
Clinton has proposed awarding up to a million student-parents $1,500 per year
for expenses like child care and transportation. This would help, but other
changes are needed. Allowing students to receive aid in regular installments
over the course of the school year — much as they would a paycheck — rather
than up front enables parents to better manage the myriad expenses they face.
And offering a small amount of support for unexpected expenses midyear —
so-called emergency aid — would also help."

How
Does a State College Survive, and Thrive, on Emergency Funding? (The
Chronicle of Higher Education)After Gov. Bruce V. Rauner of Illinois signed into law a
temporary budget to keep state institutions afloat for another six months,
public colleges and universities may have exhaled a sigh of relief. Budget
battles like this one also don’t bode well for parents and students shopping
for colleges, said Matt Hamill, from the National Association of College and
University Business Officers.

Job
Training Works. So Why Not Do More? (The New York Times)For some reason, this is a strategy the United States has not
pursued earnestly in quite a long time. That looks like a mistake. MDRC last
week released the preliminary assessment of an experiment called WorkAdvance.
WorkAdvance offered targeted sectoral training programs for low-income workers
in New York City, as well as in Tulsa, Okla., and northeast Ohio. Their results
were heartening. After two years, participants made 14 percent more on average
than workers in a control group, who did not benefit from the new approach.
That amounts to $1,945 a year.

Health Care

New
Oregon report lifts veil on hospital rates (State of Reform)A new report by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) published
on Tuesday offers a revealing look at how different commercial health plans
negotiate varying payments for medical procedures to hospitals. The report
shows a wide range in payments between and even within hospitals for the same
procedure, shedding light on how some patients end up paying more than others
depending on the rates their insurance company has agreed to pay. The
first-of-its-kind annual report — mandated under legislation passed by the
Oregon state legislature in 2015 — aims to provide a source of transparency to
the public on hospital prices.

Personalized
Recommendation Engines Are Coming to Health Care
(Harvard Business Review)The best online retailers offer customers a curated and
highly personalized shopping experience. They empower shoppers with in-depth
product information and peer opinions and seem to know what a consumer is looking
for before the person asks for it – and sometimes even before she or he knows
they want it. Now, healthcare companies are experimenting with digital
capabilities to see if they can encourage a similar level of influence in
people’s lives. By doing so, they are testing the limits of the potential power
of repurposing online retail innovations that consumers have become accustomed
to in varied industries and potentially revamping healthcare in the process.

The
Next Big Debate in Health Care (The Wall Street Journal)Drew Altman writes: With 91% of the population now covered by
some form of health insurance, and the coverage rate higher in some states, the
next big debate in health policy could be about the adequacy of coverage. That
particularly means rising payments for deductibles and their impact on family
budgets and access to care. This is about not just Obamacare but also the many
more people who get insurance through an employer.